The very mention of travel excites most of us. We all look forward to packing our bags and exploring the unexplored. Interestingly, people travel for different reasons.
According to a study published in CrowdRiff, following are the top three reasons people love to travel:
To experience local activities and different cultures: 67% of high-income travelers love to spend on experiencing local activities rather than a hotel room.
To get to know history and heritage: There is a rise of 125 percent in the number of global travelers who love to take a break from the daily routine by traveling to heritage sites.
For adventure: 42% of British travelers voted for action-packed trips and consider social media influencers as their inspiration.
Well! Here is a piece of good news for all travel enthusiasts. No matter the reason behind your traveling, it can work wonders for your physical and mental health. Wondering how? Keep reading to know more!
Top Physical and Mental Health Benefits of Travel
With the number of travelers increasing every year, researchers studied the impact of traveling on travelers. And here are the top benefits of traveling that they found out:
Escape from mundane
Most of us often feel trapped in our daily routine – wake up, cook, work, pay bills, stress, sleep, repeat! Traveling gives us the best chance to escape from this mundane routine. No cooking, daily chores, office calls, work stress, or deadlines.
Traveling gives a chance to relish every moment without any botheration and have a not-so-strict schedule.
Imagine waking up to watch the beautiful sunrise over the sea, enjoying the fresh breeze over the hills and de stressing amidst the chirping of the birds, or by going on a hike, swim, or a deep dive into the corals. Such experiences are bound to destress and rejuvenate all your senses.
Traveling turns out to be fulfilling, a mental refresher, and a big escape from the daily routine.
Pic reference: https://unsplash.com/photos/jB8WaHvHmoY
Strengthens Emotional bonds
In today’s stressful life, people hardly have any time left for their family and kids. Traveling gives a much-needed break and time to share with your loved ones.
It involves everything from planning to loading the luggage on your car’s roof racks before hitting the road. All these activities get you closer to your family. You share thoughts, ideas, and get to understand each other better.
While traveling with family, you are away from all the worldly worries and can give your hundred percent to your family.
Children in the group feel curious and happy to discover many new aspects of different people and cultures. Traveling gives time to spend time with our loved ones to talk heartily and sweet reminiscence moments. Elders and extended family feel renewed, and this helps strengthen family bonds.
Expands horizons of life
Philosopher Saint Augustine quoted – “The world is a book and those who do not travel read only a page.” Traveling offers exposure to varied cultures, lifestyles, and people, enriching experiences, thus teaching us how to look wider in every aspect of life.
This can undoubtedly be a significant plus factor from the viewpoint of emotional health. For instance, knowing how people living in underdeveloped nations face challenges even for a living will certainly make you more empathetic towards people around you. This in turn would make you thankful for things that you have, making you more emotionally satisfied.
Gives ample exercise to the body
Traveling involves a lot of walking on roads and beaches, shopping on foot, swim in rivers and lakes, hike amidst birds and trees, playing with kids, and much more.
It keeps you active and energized, thus indirectly giving more exercise to the body, thus boosting good hormones that are beneficial to physical and mental health.
Moreover, researchers confirm that the risk of heart diseases is low in people who travel twice a year.
Distressed emotionally
Traveling with friends or family is always exciting. With so many exciting activities, cooking and gossiping, there’s a lot of laughter and positivity.
People capture the best moments to Install them later or maybe instantly. Who would postpone sharing the best clicks? Interestingly, as many as 90 percent of millennials prefer to share their best travel moments on their social profiles.
Such positivity triggers feel-good hormones, and the feeling of loneliness and depression vanishes.
Pic reference: https://unsplash.com/photos/M5xVtIv1Lo8
Imparts new knowledge
Travel offers a myriad of new experiences – food, language, lifestyle, culture, dealing with new people, and seeing life from a whole new perspective. Such experiences enrich our knowledge of life and help us deal with new people and situations better.
Young kids get a practical learning experience while traveling to different parts of the world. They learn things that they can’t learn from their textbooks.
Brings out our best version
The impact of travel can remain for a long time. Our hidden strengths and talents come to fore when we travel. Travel presents a chance to reinvent ourselves into a whole new avatar – happier, confident, and satisfied.
You get to deal with different and unforeseen situations while traveling. Such experiences make you more confident and apt at problem-solving.
Improves communication skills
Traveling to foreign lands requires communicating with different people of varied languages and cultures. You learn a new language, observe locals’ habits, and lifestyle closely.
This widens the thinking process and brings maturity while communicating hereon. Thus, once you return to your place, you develop more empathy, patience, and the ability to communicate effectively with people all around.
Pic source: https://unsplash.com/photos/z9F_yK4Nmf8
That said, traveling need not necessarily mean a pricey affair. Depending on the budget, anyone can explore places nearby or fly to foreign lands. What matters is what you learn while traveling and how you implement it in daily life. Bon voyage and happy traveling!
